Electric Wire

Our parochial choir were singing entrance antiphone of today's Holy Mass, altar servers and myself were saying our customary prayer before the Mass. Then I switched on all the lights in the church. The Sunday Mass has begun. Most of lights were working, some of them shining brighter, some dimmed, a few were not working at all, though just recently we checked everything and bulbs were okay...

The Liturgy of the Word touched the theme of light. Christ being the Light of the World and us becoming light in the Lord. Using terminology of an electrician, I would compare us, Christians, as electrical wires connected to the main source of power and light which is Living God as one big wiring system interconnected and conducting electricity which is the sanctifying grace in us and through us. And this is the mystery of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church.

In the Baptism my insulation prohibiting me to touch Living God is removed. This is called taking of old habits and life of sin, as once - before Baptism - we were darkness. In Baptism we are connected to Living Triune God and His Life fills us and encompasses us and we become living conductors of electricity which is God's Life in us and through us... We shine as bulbs in my church...

Some of us though may be baptized but they never bothered to remove this insulation - the old life, life of sin and old habits unbecoming of a Christian. We may be called Catholics, we may boast of certain positions in the Church, but in fact we never conduct any Life in us and through us. We connected to the Church wiring with our insulation on... Our bulb stays dead.

Some of us may be baptized and immediately we shine forth... Then the light becomes dimmer and dimmer, sometimes with periods of blackouts, interruptions... Our connection with Living God becomes loose... rust builds on the junctions and if we are not fast enough to remove this rust of venial sins and some habits building on in us, the connection is cut off and we loose ability to be a living conductor of God's sanctifying grace and Divine Light...Our bulb becomes dead.

The power from the mains is the same for all bulbs in my church in Kiabakari. Yet they shine with different intensity. Same power, same voltage, different intensity. Just as in the Church. Same source of power - Living God. Same tools of salvation, readily available to everyone - Living Word of God and Eucharist, living Christian community. Yet we shine with different intensity. Some shine forth brightly, others' light is dimmed, some flicker, some stay dark... Who to blame for this? The source of power? Or rather our reluctance to make sure the insulation is fully off in the connecting points and we maintain those points properly never allowing rust to build on and cut off the connection?

The time of Lent is a proper time for each one of us to play a little electrician and take care of our connecting points with Living God and the entire wiring of the Church. Take then your steel brush and pliers, take sand paper and screwdriver of Lenten exercises, penance and reconciliation with God. Do the proper maintenance of your conductivity as a living member of the Holy Church. Let the sanctifying grace flow freely in you and through you.

“Awake, o sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”